'BULLET TO THE HEAD'

'BULLET TO THE HEAD' (R) (1 1/2 STARS)

Written by Alessandro Camon
Directed by Walter Hill
Actors: Sylvester Stallone, Sung Kang, Sarah Shahi, Jason Momoa, Christian Slater, Adewale Akinnvoye-Agbaje.

One of my favorite directors of action movies in the 80's and 90's was Walter Hill. There have been so many hack action directors whose names escape me. It is hard to remember a singular name except when it comes to Hill who has directed two of my favorite action movies, one is a beloved classic. Those movies would be the controversial 79 cult classic "The Warriors" and the comedy, cop, action classic "48 Hours". If anyone nowadays wants to make a great cop movie or an action movie that successfully combines gritty violence and gut busting comedy they should study "48 Hours". Also when it comes to the star of "Bullet to the Head", Sylvester Stallone, my favorite cop movie for my money is Stallone's neglected 1981 classic "Nighthawks".

Ah the good old days, for Hill and Stallone for the first time have teamed up for the absolute bottom feeding film of their careers. It is like Walter Hill is not really directing because this is a sloppy, dull and very badly put together movie. It reminds me of a crummy Jean Claude Van Damme, 80's schlock action movie. For Stallone, he looks like he does not want to be here, looking depressed and bored. The only saving grace are some one liners by Stallone but even those lines Stallone recites like he smells something rancid. The plot does not need to be described except to say it is a revenge movie where Stallone's super beefy hit man teams up with an Asian cop and the hilarious, mismatched personality clash humor ensues.

The problem with this movie is that it is lazy with unispired action scenes and that is not Walter Hill. There is a silly fight with axes at the end and that is shamelessly ripped off from the same kind of ax fight in my Walter Hill guilty pleasure, favorite 1984 movie "Streets of Fire". Now that is another Walter Hill movie that was fast paced and fun. This is a dull slog especially when it deals with Sara Shahi as Stallone's tattoo artist daughter and the many talky scenes between them. "Bullet to the Head" is on par with the bad straight to DVD action movies mostly released today. Stallone can only live on the success of "The Expendabes" for so long. If he wants to comeback he needs to again count on other geriatric action buddies to support him. His new action movie is the pits!